Between 1890 and 1891 Monet devoted some thirty paintings to the haystacks in a field near his house at Giverny. In the midst of this effort, he wrote to the critic Gustave Geoffroy: "I am working very hard, struggling with a series of different effects (haystacks), but at this season the sun sets so fast I cannot follow it. . . . The more I continue, the more I see that a great deal of work is necessary in order to succeed in rendering what I seek." Haystacks was the first group of paintings that Monet exhibited as a series; in 1891, fifteen were shown at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris.

Richard R. Brettell. "Monet's Haystacks Reconsidered." Museum Studies 11 (Fall 1984), pp. 7, 12, 19, 21 nn. 7, 15, 17, 20, fig. 6b, suggests that this picture may have been either no. 6 ("Meules. [Effet de neige; temps gris.]") or no. 7 ("Meules. [Effet de neige; soleil]") in the 1891 exhibition; discusses the Haystacks series, including a debate about how Monet may have intended the series to hang together; refers to Mrs. Potter Palmer's collection and her preference for Monet, which led her to collect nine paintings from the Haystacks series.

Paul Hayes Tucker. Monet in the '90s: The Series Paintings. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1990, pp. 3, 77, 80, 82, 296, no. 23, colorpl. 23, points out that, realistically, the shadows of the two stacks should be parallel to each other and that the shadow of the smaller one should also have a conical top.

John Sallis. "Monet's Grainstacks: Shades of Time." Tema Celeste no. 30 (March/April 1991), pp. 65, 67 n. 12 [reprinted with minor changes in "Shades–of Painting at the Limit," Bloomington, 1998, p. 37 n. 32, p. 53, colorpl. 9], discusses the Haystacks series, and asserts that they are in fact stacks of wheat or other grain and should be referred to as Wheatstacks or Grainstacks; discusses Monet's technique of painting several canvases during the day, moving between them as the light changed.

Virginia Spate. Claude Monet: Life and Work. New York, 1992, p. 213, colorpl. 232, discusses Monet's inspiration for the Haystacks series and its reception at Durand-Ruel in 1891; mentions that several of the paintings shown were sold to Mrs. Potter Palmer.

Virginia Spate. "Confronting the Sun, Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet 1888–91." Van Gogh, The Songlines of Legend. Melbourne, [1993], pp. 50–51, 54–55, discusses the Haystacks series and how it may have been partly inspired by Van Gogh's work with color.

Georges Roque. "Chevreul and Impressionism: A Reappraisal." Art Bulletin (March 1996), p. 37, mentions the use of blue for the shadow as an example of the Impressionists', and particularly Monet's, systematic employment of the colors blue and violet in shadows.